Review: The East London Hotel – An Affordable, Modern Luxury Hotel

During a recent trip to London in which I had the pleasure of speaking at a conference, we were invited to check out The East London Hotel which opened just a couple of months ago. This stylish urban hotel features 161 modern guest rooms and is just footsteps from Bethnal Green tube station.

We’re always excited when a new hotel opens up, especially in London. Competition in one of the busiest metropolitans in the world is never a bad thing. So, from our two-night weekend break in the middle of November at The East London Hotel what did we learn?

Location

We don’t often stay in East London. Yet, the entire experience of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green was absolutely amazing. I can easily see why this is seen as one of the most up-and-coming areas in London right now.

Opposite the hotel, you’ll find the V&A Museum of Childhood and the breathtaking museum gardens which featured a number of playful squirrels during our Autumnal visit.

Next door to the hotel you’ll find a 24-hour petrol station. While there are no vending machines within the hotel and a limited bar service, you can go to the Spar which is part of the petrol station for snacks, drinks etc.

Just to the back of the hotel, you’ll find a viaduct filled with amazing bars and independent restaurants including;

Alternatively, you could get an Uber from Kings Cross or London St Pancras to the East London Hotel for between £10 – £16 (prices subject to the demand of Ubers, and traffic at that time)

Don’t forget that if you’re a new Uber customer you can get your first journey completely free using the code: CWHFJ

How To Get From London Heathrow To East London Hotel

Upon arriving into London Heathrow, you’ll want to proceed to Terminal 4 where you’ll be able to get on the underground. Here you’ll want to board the Picaddily Line to Holborn Station. The journey should take approximately one hour.

From Holborn Station, you’ll want to transfer across to the central line where you can go directly to Bethnal Green in just 5 stops. Bethnal Green is 100m from the entrance of The East London Hotel.

A private hire car for this journey would be significantly more expensive at around £100 – £140 one-way for up to 4 passengers.

Don’t forget that if you’re a new Uber customer you can get your first journey completely free using the code: CWHFJ

Check-In

Check-In at The East London Hotel is available from 2pm. We arrived around 6pm, and was greeted by a staff member offering us a small glass of pink champagne as well as a welcoming appetiser.

While the entire check-in process was digital and could be done independently on one of three different easily accessible counters. Staff came over to assist us with the process ensuring it went smoothly.

Room

A member of staff proceeded to assist us with our bags to our room situated on the fourth floor. Rooms are accessible via one of two lifts or a staircase. There are 161 rooms, a number without windows, so be sure to specify your room requirements when booking if you want a specific view or window.

Like most mid-range hotels in London, the East London Hotel is compact. It features the most delightful double bed with a widescreen TV in front (in our opinion placed a couple of inches too high as it caused my neck to ache while we were watching it)

Under the bed, you’ll find some storage. We found this to be ideal for the small suitcase we’d brought with us for the trip.

Then next to the bed there was an open plan wardrobe. The East London Hotel is designed for young couples spending a couple of nights in London and the design of this room clearly echoes this with these small space maximising details.

Finally, I have to mention the Nespresso machine. As a coffee lover, the fancy coffee machine in the room was something that really wowed me. Honestly, it’s always these small things that really tip an 8 out of 10 hotel up to a 9 / 10 out of 10 hotel for me!

Bathroom

Then there’s The East London Hotel bathroom. Filled with white tiling with a beautiful slate brickwork detailing, the entire area is once again super clean, very modern and maximises the space it has.

We absolutely loved the monsoon shower, as well as the ability to also use a flexible showerhead should this be required. As well as the amazing bath sheets, these sheets were twice the size of a towel and were really soft, but super thick and cuddly meaning you could dry off in a matter of seconds.

The hotel benefits from Rituals organic soaps and comes with complimentary shampoo, conditioner and body wash within the shower area.

Services

WIFI

There’s complimentary WIFI at The East London Hotel and during our two-night stay here we experienced no downtime. We found that the upload and download speeds highlighted below were pretty consistent even during peak hours.

While this isn’t lightening fast, it’s more than enough to stream movies and videos at a relativily reasonable rate, listen to music, browse the interet and reply to emails.

Events

Our visit was over the weekend. Staff informed us that they’d been trialling different small events over the weekends since the hotel had opened and this weekend there was the ability to use a wonderful photo booth filled with props completely free of charge.

Hotel Communication – Whatsapp

To save space, and for added convenience, there are no phones within the hotel room. Instead, there’s a Whatsapp number on the TV within your room that you can use to contact the reception and ask any questions.

In our case, we couldn’t remember what time breakfast was served from/to. As you can see the staff promptly responded to our message – pretty impressive!

Bag Storage

If you’re arriving into London prior to the 2pm check-in or staying in London post the 11am check-out then The East London Hotel will be more than happy to store your bags for you while you head out to explore the city.

Breakfast

You can add breakfast to your stay at The East London Hotel at the point of booking online, upon arrival at the hotel or pay for your breakfast as and when you require it throughout your stay.

If you have breakfast included within your stay then you’ll be asked to choose from one toast with two fillings, one coffee, one juice and one yoghurt or pastry.

The breakfast was without a doubt one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. I opted for the bacon and avocado bagel, it came with one rasher of bacon and a super generous amount of avocado (yes please!)

Helen opted for bacon and egg, and once again was as impressed as I was. Unfortunatly, on our second day, we came down for breakfast towards the end of the serving time at around 10.30am. For that reason there were no pastries left, and instead we had to opt for yogurt.

Conclusion

We loved our visit to the stylish (but super non-pretentious) East London Hotel. The location is impeccable which was totally not something we expected having never really stayed in East London in the past.

The staff service was on point, the quality of the rooms was amazing, the breakfast was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had worldwide. I mean, seriously? What’s not to love?

While in London don’t forget to try and catch a show on the West End. We had the pleasure of watching Kinky Boots last year and it was amazing!

97%

Location - 97%

96%

Room - 96%

93%

Services - 93%

90%

Value For Money - 90%

94%

Summary

Thanks to The East London Hotel for kindly inviting us to check out their first hotel. We’re in love! and wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again. The style is totally up our street, the breakfast is AMAZING and the photobooth is a novelty that we believe all hotels need!

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